The Star Wars guide to finance

Is it payroll day already? It's come up quickly, or so it seems to Macro Man. Expectations have been marked down on the basis of Wednesday's ADP report; while the Bloomberg consensus looks for 100k, the street price is probably more like 85k. Macro Man has taken 137 in the office pool. While many seem to think that this is an unusually important data release, Macro Man takes the opposite view: the Fed will do what it wants to do on September 18o, regardless of how today's figures pan out.

Yesterday's central bank meeting fest played out more or less in line with Macro Man's expectations. The BOE offered some explanatory guidance while leaving rates unchanged, which some have interpreted as suggesting a rate cut next month. While Macro Man reckons that the BOE probably should cut, he thinks it highly doubtful indeed that they do.

As it is Friday, and both the Rugby World Cup and the NFL are starting, Macro Man has decided to have a little fun. Stealing shamelessly from this NFL season preview, Macro Man gives you the world of finance as seen seen through the lens of Star Wars:

Anakin Skywalker: Ben Bernanke. Has the power to do great good, but also the power to do great harm. No one much likes his boss.

Obi-Wan Kenobi - George Soros - Won major battles in his day against the dark forces, went on to train many young knights who made their own marks in the world. Has now slipped back to being an ephemeral voice whispering philosphic and philanthropic words to those that that can still feel the force.